10 FREE Financial Services to Help you DOMINATE your Financial New Year’s Resolutions
Sometimes the best things in life are really free after all. Well, OK, personal finance services and strategy rarely fits in the ‘best things in life’ category, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t important in helping you to focus more on the things that are truly the best in your life.
Many of the services I will mention have ‘non-free’ (paid) alternatives. What’s particularly great about this list is that the free offerings do not suffer in their quality in comparison to its paid competitors. In fact, many are industry leaders – or will soon be someday – in their niche.
And some of these things aren’t services at all, but rather, ways that you can get free money that you might be missing out on. No catch, other than the fact that you have to be motivated and execute, which is always easier said than done. What better time of year than the beginning?
Free Checking
There has been widespread concern that new consumer protection from bank overdraft fees would wipe out the ‘free’ part of free checking accounts. Many banks have eliminated free checking accounts, but some of the best online banks have not followed suit. The two best online checking accounts I’ve found are:
- Ally Bank Interest Checking: $0 monthly fee, $0 balance to open, free checks, zero ATM fees (they actually pay for fees charged by other banks!), and you earn interest earned on your balance (with a high enough balance you exceed 1%).
- Everbank Yield Pledge Checking: $0 monthly fee, $1,500 to open, free checks, zero ATM fees (they also reimburse), and a high starting interest rate of over 1%.
Free Stock Trades
Check out OptionsHouse, a discount broker that is now offering up to 100 commission free trades if you have a minimum $3K balance when you enter promo code IRAFREE when opening a new IRA. The free trades are good for 60 days.
You can also get up to $125 in transfer fees reimbursed if you are switching from another online broker.
Free Credit Cards
When the Credit Card Act passed earlier this year, there was widespread fear that it would lead to more credit card issuers charging annual fees, particularly on cards with cashback rewards. Many of them did, however, the best rewards cards out there still have no annual fee. A few of my faves are:
- Discover it card: No annual fee, 0% intro APR’s on purchases and transfers, up to 5% cashback in specified categories (and up to 1% on everything else), and up to 20% cashback when you shop at Discover partners. For more, check out my Discover it card review.
As with all credit cards, in order to make them ‘free’, and even get cashback in a meaningful way, pay your balance in full each month.
Free Debit Card Rewards
The very few debit cards out there that offer cashback rewards typically offer a paltry % cash back. And many of the ones that do will charge you an annual fee just for the perk. Not PerkStreet Financial. Their MasterCard debit card offers an amazing 2% cash back (more than any other debit card and 99% of the credit cards out there).
Perkstreet gets my pick for being one of the best new financial service products. 2% cashback on a debit card – are you kidding me? Check out my PerkStreet Financial review for more information.
Free Credit Score
Credit Karma is a completely free credit score reporting service that offers up your TransUnion credit score. Although not the FICO score used by lenders, it should give you a close approximation to what your FICO score might be. There are no hidden free trials (then get screwed with a monthly charge) and no credit card is required to sign up.
Credit Karma also announced that they are now offering free credit monitoring! This is a service that usually costs $15/month!
How does Credit Karma offer this free service? Much like the Mint.com monetization model, Credit Karma will offer up partner services as a way for you to save money.
Free Money
Yes, you heard me right. Free money. No joke. You just have to have a little patience, Axl (like wait until you’re 65 type patience). If your employer matches funds that you contribute to your 401k, get as much as that free money as possible.
So many young professionals overlook this very important employment perk and they’ll be kicking themselves later in life for not having taken advantage of it and letting that free money compound over the years. It’s free money, folks! It may be the only time you’ll ever get it.
Free Capital Gains
After you’ve received your employer’s free 401k matching funds to the max extent that they offer, it’s time to go Roth – Roth IRA, that is. Since all funds that you contribute to a Roth IRA are pre-taxed, any capital gains that you make in the future are tax free. Check out the 2011 Roth IRA contribution limits (same as 2010) to find out how much you can contribute next year and start planning ahead.
On top of free capital gains, TradeKing offers up IRA’s that do not charge an annual fee. I house my Roth and Traditional IRA’s with them.
Free Tax Software
Like it or not, it’s time to start working on filing your 2010 taxes. Tax software makers Turbotax and H&R Block both offer up free 1040EZ federal tax software and free federal e-filing (state is extra on both), which should be sufficient enough for 60-65% of Americans who do not itemize tax deductions (a crazy stat, if you ask me).
Free Personal Finance Software
If you haven’t used Mint.com yet? What is stopping. In full disclosure, I’m slightly biased as I write for Mint, but I was using their service long before I started doing so and have continued to get a lot of value from Mint’s free budgeting and planning capabilities. You can get automated net worth and account balance updates, find out what others in your area are spending on certain categories, and suggestions on how to save money. And it’s all free. Many knock-off services out there are charging for less.
If you’re looking for something that is simple and basic, check out my free to download budgeting spreadsheet.
Free Credit Report
Don’t let marketing companies in disguise offer you credit reports (for free or paid), when you can 3 free credit reports per year. AnnualCreditReport.com (the real-deal website, mandated by the federal government) offers you three free credit reports annually. Otherwise, it’s likely a free credit report scam you’re looking at. Space out your free credit reports every 4 months to consistently check for discrepancies.
Have a happy and prosperous New Year!
I am G.E. Miller, & 
GE, this is EXTREMELY helpful. I knew about half of these, but the other half I did not (the free checking with interest and Credit Karma I will be checking out). And you’re right, a little reminder for motivational purposes does come in handy. Happy New Year!
I’ve been using Mint for a couple weeks now, and like it. The fact that it has an iPhone app, makes it incredibly accessible, even when I’m away from a computer. Plus, it gives me notifications when I’m reaching a particular budget — pretty good to stay on course with!
I always want to try Mint and I always get nervous about sharing so much information. I know its not a logical worry but its something i cannot shake.
Ally has been a good bank, in my opinion. They always have good rates.
@ Broke – I had the same initial concerns with Mint – and they are valid concerns. I have not heard of Mint having any security breaches to this date, but I suppose that is always on the table.
I did have some concerns as well, I have been using them since December but did a lot of research before I took the plunge. They have bank level security (somewhere below military security according to some independent reviews), and being an Intuit company gave it enough weight to make me feel comfortable about not being scammed. I absolutely love being able to see exactly when my automatic deposits and other transactions take place right on my phone. Seeing my net worth change, the budget alerts and all accounts from credit cards, investment accounts and my HSA are helpful too.
I just want to point out that Roth IRS contributions are actually post-tax. So essentially you pay taxes on contributions up front, but your money grows tax free. Whereas with the traditional IRA, your funds are contribution pre-tax, but you pay tax on the gain.
OK. I probably read that incorrectly. I’m a tax accountant, so whenever I see pre-tax, my brain instantly thinks “contribution before payroll tax,” not already taxed.
TANSTAAFL
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
Or as they say, caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. Mint/Intuit use your data to sell you more financial products (those sponsored credit card ads, not necessarily bad, but it ain’t free). They also have agglomerated data based on geographic location, income, age and gender which they will be or are already offering some companies to sell you stuff. The information may not be associated with your name and social security but it is associated with your email and zip code.
If you are worried about it, don’t use mint.
Disclosure: I use mint and quite like it myself.
Though, I love to try Min’t free personal finance software I prefer to use the simple budgeting spreadsheet you have had shared for free download to your readers. Because I can print the spreadsheet and edit it anytime and anywhere even without Internet connection.
Have you looked into USAA bank? Their bank offers free checking, free trades on all USAA mutural funds (they have a lot), they will pay up to 15 dollars a month in ATM transaction fees (usually about 5 withdrawls/month), 2% cash back on most credit card purchases, and auto/home insurance that is cheaper than any of the major companies I looked into. Their customer service is also superb. The only catch is that they don’t have many branches. If you recieve a lot of checks, you can deposit them at certian UPS stores or mail them into USAA. You have to be in the military or a direct family member of another USAA customer.
Excellent links, and they hit on all important financial matters – banking, budgeting, credit reports and investing. It’s amazing how much money you can save if you just shop around for better deals!